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Sticky & Sweet Chicken Stir-fry Recipe 2 of 12 from Enjoy!

Posted on October 10, 2017 by sheila kiely

Sweet & Sticky Chicken Stir-Fry
Recipe number 2 of 12 before Christmas means we’re another week closer! BTs, M&S, Boots et al are all very upfront in their homage to the festive season. Walls are being cleared, the sun holiday aisle is being swept away and before you know it we’ll be out there buying a plethora of 3 for 2 gifts without the faintest idea of who any of it all is for.
I’ve already bought a couple of baubles. Being a fan of all things timeless and classic our main Christmas tree is always festooned in a combination of red & gold so each year I just buy a couple of more bits to add to the collection.

As I write this it is 6.15pm and I am where I do much of my writing, in the car at the side of the pitch while the kids are at a training session. It’s still bright. In a few more weeks I’ll be chasing the brightest streetlamp. It’s a strangely humid and moist day with a greyed sky that had been filled with a blazing autumn sunshine earlier this morning. Ah, here comes the rain, now we’ve had a bit of everything. I hope tomorrow starts off golden again and that we can enjoy a few more weeks of watching the trees try on hues of red, gold, yellow and burnished browns until stripping off completely. The leaf-blowers will be out in earnest then but for now there’s still the odd optimist patiently pushing a droning lawnmower accompanied by the neighbourhood canine chorus.

Food photography Marta Miklinska, Food Styling Jette Virdi taken from Recipe Book, Enjoy! by Sheila Kiely

Sticking to the theme of autumnal hues this deliciously sweet and sticky chicken bright with orange juice, dark with soy will be brought quickly to your table. As mangetout are just going out of season you could substitute with sliced courgette which is delicious slightly undercooked and plentiful at the moment.

Addendum:
At time of publishing as opposed to writing I am back at home it’s 8pm dark & wet and I am not inclined towards prose having just brought in the drowned washing optimistically hung out to dry this warm autumnal morn!

Sweet & Sticky Chicken Stir-Fry
Sweetened with orange juice, this is quick and easy to prepare and ready in 20 minutes. I love it with brown rice or noodles.
Serves 4
You will need:
4 skinless chicken breasts
1 tbsp coconut or rapeseed oil
Half head of broccoli
200g mangetout
3 spring onions
3 tbsp dark soy sauce
Juice of 2 oranges
2 tsp cornflour
Handful of cashew nuts
cooked brown rice or noodles, to serve
Method:
Chop the chicken into bite-size pieces. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan and cook the chicken for 4 minutes on a high heat.
While the chicken is cooking, break the broccoli into small florets, rinse the mangetout and rinse and chop the spring onions.
Add 1 tablespoon of the soy sauce to the chicken, then add the broccoli, mangetout and spring onions and cook for 3 minutes.
Juice the oranges and mix with the cornflour and the remaining 2 tablespoons of soy sauce in a small bowl. Add this to the chicken and cook for 1 minute, stirring well. If you would prefer a saucier mix, add a little water. Finally, sprinkle in the cashew nuts and cook for 1 minute. Serve with rice or noodles.
Enjoy!
Til next time, Sheila

What's for Dinner Mom?

Spiced Vegetarian Burgers – Recipe 1 of 12 from Enjoy

Posted on October 1, 2017October 4, 2017 by sheila kiely

In 12 weeks time we shall all be gearing down for Christmas with some of us coming to a stuttering halt as we just about get there intact. Yes it’s the first of October today so I am allowed to mention the festivities. Looking forward to and enjoying the build-up to Christmas will get us through the darkening days and over the hump of what can be a depressing time as nights close in on top of us. In my countdown I will be marking the 12 remaining weeks with a recipe from my cookbook Enjoy!
The first that I am sharing is my Spiced Vegetarian Burger. I love a little bit of heat in my cooking and chilli often features as it does here in the form of chilli powder. In this recipe I use a lot of store-cupboard ingredients so if you stock up you can be sure of something tasty during the hibernation period.

Image from cookbook Enjoy! – Food photography Marta Miklinska, Food styling Jette Virdi

Spiced Vegetarian Burger
Too often, vegetarian burgers are lightweight and unsatisfying. What I like about these is that they look meaty and are robust and filling. The patties can be prepared ahead of time and left in the fridge until you’re ready to cook.
Serves 6
You will need:
3 slices of multigrain whole-wheat bread (approx. 170g)
1 medium onion
2 tbsp rapeseed or coconut oil
100g mushrooms
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp regular paprika
1 tsp hot chilli powder
1 x 400g tin of lentils
1 x 400g tin of kidney beans
1 egg, beaten
Cornflour, for dusting
Baps, buns or bread rolls, to serve
Method:
Blitz the bread in a food processor or mini-chopper to create breadcrumbs and set aside.
Finely chop the onion and soften in 1 tablespoon of oil heated in a large frying pan over a low heat for 5 minutes. Finely chop the mushrooms and crush the garlic, then add them to the softened onion and cook for 3 minutes. Add the paprika and chilli powder and mix well.
Drain the lentils in a sieve and press to squeeze away any excess moisture, then stir them into the onion and mushrooms. Take the pan off the heat.
Roughly pulse the well-drained kidney beans in a food processor – you want them bitey, not pulpy. Put these in a large bowl, then mix in the breadcrumbs, the lentil mixture and the beaten egg to combine. Use your hands to shape into six even-sized patties. Lightly dust the tops of the burgers with cornflour.
Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in large frying pan over a medium to high heat. Cook as many burgers as will fit in the pan for 5 minutes, floured side down. Lightly dust the other side with cornflour before turning the burgers over and cooking for a further 5 minutes.
Serve in lightly toasted buns or baps. I suggest serving them with coleslaw, lettuce and ketchup too.
Enjoy!
‘Til next time, Sheila.

Recipes, What's for Dinner Mom?

Vegetarian Curry

Posted on August 14, 2017October 4, 2017 by sheila kiely

Vegetarian Curry.
I think I’ve made one of these before, oh yes look : Cauliflower and Sweet Potato Curry, it’s on my blog and also in my cookbook ‘Enjoy!’ over here look, ahem.

Back to the present.

What I’m looking for when I cook is simplicity, accessible ingredients and taste. I will do anything to avoid chop, chop, chopping and keep the prep. simple. I love all vegetables but I hate prep. especially awkward peeling and then hard chopping. Case in point turnips. To my shame I probably only cook turnip a couple of times a year. It is delicious when cubed, tenderly cooked and smothered in butter or mashed with white pepper. I am sorry turnip, you’ve been neglected because you are such flipping hard work. But you are delicious and you are worth it. Turnip I shall revisit you anon. But there is no turnip in this recipe.
There are shallots though that are a little fiddly to peel but a cinch to slice, the knife just glides through them. 2 cloves of garlic – sometimes I’m lazy and use garlic granules instead because again fiddly peeling! Ginger – I keep fresh ginger in the freezer, never peel it and grate what I need of it straight from the freezer using a microplane grater – If you don’t have one of these, they are a must. I buy kale ready washed and chopped.
Store-cupboard ingredients such as cannelini, butter beans and chickpeas are a life-saver along with chopped tomatoes. If you just had those, some spicing and stock cubes you will never be too far from a simple tasty meal.
Time is another element of cooking that is on short supply these days so this beauty is for one of those days where dinner simply has to be prepped and cooked in under 30 minutes.
Voila.

Vegetarian Curry.
You will need:
1 tbsp cooking oil
5 shallots (or 1 medium onion)
2 cloves garlic
Knob ginger
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
half tsp hot chilli powder
1 tin cannelini beans
1 tin butter beans
1 tin chickpeas
1 tin chopped tomato
1 tin water
bunch kale – 4 large handfuls
1 tin coconut milk
salt and black pepper
Brown rice to serve (cook according to pack)
Method:
Heat the oil in a large deep pan and soften sliced shallots for 10 minutes over a medium heat.
Add crushed garlic and grated ginger. Mix well.
Add the spices : 1 tbsp garam masala, 1 tsp turmeric, half tsp hot chilli powder. Mix well.
Turn the heat to high and add drained cannelini, butter beans and chickpeas, mix well, then add the chopped tomatoes and 1 tin of water. Bring to the boil, add the chopped kale and stir through then put a lid on, reduce the heat to a simmer for 5 minutes.
Stir in coconut milk to heat through.
Serve with the cooked rice. Would also love to be accompanied by some naan bread, dollop of natural yoghurt and some chopped cashews.
Enjoy!
‘Til next time, Sheila.

Recipes, What's for Dinner Mom?

No Chop Chicken Dinner

Posted on May 14, 2017October 9, 2017 by sheila kiely

Standing in your kitchen with one eye on the clock as you frantically try to chop, peel and prep. vegetables and meat for dinner, fills no-one with joy. Fine if you have all the time in the world and are not going to be put under pressure by a towering 6ft teenager who practically has steam coming out his ears because yet again he is STARVING. Not only are the children all verging on collapse because they’ve had ‘nothing’ to eat all day but you only have 30 minutes before you’ve got to don your ‘taxi’ cap and get on the road again for a sports fixture.
This is my life at the moment and it’s set to continue thus for a few more years until they decide I’m redundant. Meanwhile I’m continuously trying to come up with quick, easy yet balanced and filling meals and the tribe have declared this one a triumph.

Zero prep. Really? Yes, nothing! Unless you count cutting a lemon in half before you squeeze it and making up a jug of chicken stock, that’s all there is to it. No peeling, no chopping just straight-forward no-fuss cooking. Mini chicken fillets are a key ingredient here as they cook so much more quickly than full chicken breasts. If your brood are of the particularly ravenous variety be sure to accompany this with some fresh crusty bread to fill any gaps.

I simply don’t have time for weighing of ingredients here and judge most things by eye so you may want to check the pack of bulgur wheat for quantities of wheat vs stock and likewise you decide how much chicken and veg. you need to satisfy your audience. Err on the side of making too much as leftovers will be perfect eaten either hot or cold.
No Chop Chicken Dinner:
You will need:
Mini chicken fillets
Rapeseed or your preferred cooking oil
Chilli flakes (or chilli paste)
Chicken stock cube
Bulgur wheat
1 lemon
Packet of frozen sweetcorn halves
Fresh sugar snap peas and green beans
Balsamic vinegar
Honey
Block of feta cheese
Sunflower seeds
Method:
Pre-heat your fan oven to 200C and boil the kettle
Place the mini chicken fillets on a cooking tray and drizzle with oil and scatter over chilli flakes or stir through some chilli paste. Place in the heated oven and leave to cook for 10 minutes.
Make up the quantity of chicken stock needed for the amount of bulgur wheat you are cooking (I use a large glass measuring jug for this) add the bulgur wheat and cover the jug with cling-film or tinfoil to keep the heat in.
Leave to stand for 5 minutes or until all the stock is absorbed.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon. Take the lid off the bulgur wheat, fluff it up with a fork and stir through the lemon juice, cover again to keep it warm.
After the mini chicken fillets have been cooking for 10 minutes remove tray from the oven, drizzle chicken generously with honey and balsamic vinegar and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Meanwhile cook the sweetcorn halves in a saucepan of boiling water, they should cook in under 10 minutes.
Cook the sugar snap peas and green beans in a saucepan of boiling water and drain.
When everything is ready place the bulgur wheat in the base of a large serving platter. Top with the cooked green vegetables and then the mini chicken fillets along with all the juices.
Arrange the sweetcorn around the edges, crumble over the block of feta and scatter sunflower seeds over everything and serve.
Enjoy!
‘Til next time, Sheila.

Recipes

Chicken, Black Pudding & Honeyed Flaxseed Feta Tray Bake

Posted on March 26, 2017October 9, 2017 by sheila kiely

Chicken, Black Pudding & Honeyed Flaxseed Feta Tray Bake.

Sometimes it’s hard to come up with a name for a dish especially when there’s a plethora of ingredients like this one. I’ve thrown a few of the ingredients at the title in the hopes that it will sound interesting enough to have a read of and then maybe to cook. A cinch of a dish. I dreamt this up while thinking about what would be really easy and quick but satisfying at the same time. Curious textures and extra nutrients were added in the form of flaked almonds and flaxseeds. This was quite the accident. Flaxseed is not an ingredient I would normally stock but with sports crazy kids bringing home recipes from nutritionists to try out, we ended up with a bag of them which I mistakenly bought instead of milled flaxseed. Sure what would I know! Very far from a flaxseed, milled or otherwise, that I was reared. So what to do with these curious looking seeds other than to use them up by flinging at them every dish that goes through the pass.

Now below may look like an off-puttingly lengthy ingredients list (not everything can be made with just 4!) but many of them are long-life store cupboard ones such as the flaked almonds, flaxseed (ahem, ok these are not normally in my store-cupboard), chilli powder, paprika and chickpeas so if you’re well stocked it’ll just be a matter of picking up a few veg, chicken, black pudding, feta and naan bread. With the chicken, black pudding and feta it’s protein heavy and very satisfying but feels like a healthy balanced meal that doesn’t leave you feeling bloated. What I love is the minimal prep., just the chopping of pepper and red onion and that’s not even done finely so prep only takes about 5 minutes in all. Using mini-chicken fillets cuts the cooking and prep. time with total cooking time 25-30 minutes.

Serves: 4 generously, maybe leftovers for someone’s lunch the next day if the munchies don’t see it gobbled it by midnight.
You will need:
1 red pepper
2 medium red onion
400g can chickpeas
500g mini chicken fillets
Rapeseed or Olive Oil
Hot Chilli Powder
Paprika
280g round black pudding
200g block feta
4 tbsp flaked almond
1 tbsp flaxseed
Honey for drizzling
Mini naan breads or flat breads (I used garlic & coriander mini naan)
Bag of rocket and spinach leaves
Dressing : combine some olive oil, red wine vinegar and honey
Method:
You will need 3 baking trays
Pre-heat the fan oven to 200C
Deseed and thinly slice the red pepper. Peel and chop the red onion into wedges. Place the red pepper and red onion into a baking tray with the drained can of chickpeas.
Place the mini chicken fillets in a separate baking tray.
Drizzle the vegetables and the chicken with oil and then dust with chilli powder and paprika.
Bake in the hot oven for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile slice the black pudding into rounds and cut the block of feta into small cubes.
After the vegetables and chicken have been cooking for 15 minutes remove both trays from the oven. Toss the chicken and sprinkle with some more chilli powder and paprika then arrange the black pudding slices in with the chicken and return the tray to the oven.
Toss and mix the red pepper, red onion and chickpeas and return that tray to the oven also.
Bake both trays again for another 5 minutes.
Remove the vegetable tray, scatter the feta cubes on top, drizzle generously with honey and scatter over 1 tbsp of flaxseed, return tray to oven.
Remove the chicken and black pudding tray, sprinkle over the flaked almonds and return to the oven again.
Bake both trays again for another 5 minutes.
Finally, arrange the naan bread or flat breads on the third baking tray and heat through in the oven continuing to cook the chicken etc for a further 3 minutes or so until the bread is nicely warmed.
Serve on a bed of rocket and spinach leaves and dress with a mixture of oil, red wine vinegar and honey dressing – made to your taste.
Leftovers are just as delicious cold.
Enjoy!
‘Til next time, Sheila.